Please sign in
You need to log in to use the bookmarking feature.
Coming Soon! New Baker website launching week of 8/5/2024.
![harvard business school business plan pdf Harvard Business School](https://www.library.hbs.edu/bundles/baker/img/logo-print.png)
- Baker Library
- Special Collections
- Fast Answers
- All Services
- Plan Your Visit
- Working Knowledge
- Academic Programs
- Faculty & Research
- Harvard Business Review
- Initiatives
- Map / Directions
- Owner/President Management (OPM) eBaker
- Start or grow a business
![](http://nandemo.space/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
Write a business plan
- Review templates and tools for developing and pitching your business plan.
Public Web sites:
Small business administration.
The "Small Business Planner" section has a specific page of resources to guide you when creating this essential component for getting your business started.
Start-Up Resource Center
An Inc. Magazine Web site offering a useful and thorough how-to guide with advice and ideas on Structuring a Business Plan .
Additional information on Business Plans is available at the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. There is also a classic article written by Professor Bill Sahlman on How to Write a Great Business Plan .
Updating a Classic: Writing a Great Business Plan
- A business plan can't be a tightly crafted prediction of the future but rather a depiction of how events might unfold and a road map for change.
- The people making the forecasts are more important than the numbers themselves.
- What matters is having all the required ingredients (or a road map for getting them), not the exact form of communication.
- The best money comes from customers, not external investors.
Sean Silverthorne: " How to Write a Great Business Plan " has been one of the most downloaded articles on Harvard Business Publishing since you wrote it in 1997. Why do you think you hit a nerve?
Bill Sahlman: Writing a business plan is a seminal moment in the life of a new venture. Doing so entails committing to paper a vision of the factors that will affect the success or failure of the enterprise. People take the exercise very seriously and get emotionally invested in what they produce.
In that context, the article was written to give insights into how to think about the role of a business plan and its relation to new venture formation. I tried to explain that a business plan can't be a tightly crafted prediction of the future but rather a depiction of how events might unfold and a road map for change. I emphasized the notion that successful entrepreneurs constantly seek the right mixture of people, opportunity, context, and deal. They anticipate what can go wrong, what can go right, and they try to balance risk and reward.
Over the years, I have received many e-mails from folks trying to craft a business plan. They want feedback. Actually, they really want me to say that they are on the right track. I explain that I would need to get to know them and their opportunity much better than what is possible in an e-mail and that the written document is not as important as the people writing it. It's not science—it's art and craft.
Q: In the decade since the original article came out, business conditions have changed. If you were writing this piece today, would you change it much?
A: I don't think the world has changed materially. Successful ventures still have competent people pursuing sensible opportunities, using resources that help, in a favorable context. Yes, the context is very challenging today. But challenges create opportunities.
If gaining access to capital is hard, sometimes that means there will be fewer competitors. This period is almost the antithesis of the Internet bubble when everyone could raise money and start a company regardless of how lamebrained the idea. Also, we have difficult factor markets like energy, but that simply means that there are great opportunities for people with ideas for alternative energy.
Were I rewriting the article today, I might emphasize the importance of controlling your destiny by being conservative about access to capital. Many great ventures in the Internet era (pre-1999) ended up failing because they assumed they would have continued access to cheap capital. Many of those businesses failed, though the underlying idea was sensible. Similarly, we have seen a period when capital markets got ugly, which has a negative effect on all ventures, sensible and nonsensical.
I would also reinforce the idea that entrepreneurship is critical around the world. We are confronted with many crises from health care to the environment to global poverty. Solutions are likely to come from talented private sector and social entrepreneurs.
Q: You wrote in the original article that most business plans "waste too much ink on numbers and devote too little to the information that really matters to intelligent investors." Still true today? What really matters to investors?
A: When there is great uncertainty in the market, investors become quite risk averse. They will only back proven entrepreneurs with truly compelling ideas. People make the numbers, not conversely. So, I still think the people making the forecasts are more important than the numbers themselves.
Q: More and more entrepreneurial ventures are "born global": They seek to address a global market and attract funding from global investors. Should a business plan be tailored in some way for a global audience?
A: We live in a world of democratized access to ideas, human capital, and money. There are fabulous global ventures being started in every corner of the globe. These ventures can raise money locally or globally. They can disperse talent in many countries.
Take a company like Skype. When I visited Skype several years ago, it had 125 employees from 23 countries. The development team was in Estonia, and its headquarters in Europe. Skype had raised seed capital in Europe and in the United States. That's the new model.
Q: On the technology front, software applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have added many charting, graphing, and visualizing capabilities. Some business plans are even written as Web pages. Should entrepreneurs avail themselves of these tools for business plans, or do they clutter the message too much?
A: On the first floor of the Rock Center at HBS there is a copy of the original business plan that Arthur Rock wrote for Intel some 40 years ago. It's only a few pages long, but it describes an outstanding team pursuing a new technology. I have seen compelling business plans in the form of a few PowerPoint slides, a couple of scribbled pages, and a brief video. What matters is having all the required ingredients (or a road map for getting them), not the exact form of communication.
Q: If you were to update your "Glossary of Business Plan Terms" and what they really mean ("We seek a value-added investor" really means "We are looking for a passive, dumb-as-rocks investor"), what current terms would you include?
A: The glossary holds today. I think entrepreneurs, investors, and employees need to be suitably skeptical about what they read in business plans. I have read perhaps 5,000 plans and have only seen three companies really meet their plan. That sounds like a pattern to me. If anyone makes a bet based on the company doing exactly as written, he or she will be sadly disappointed.
At the same time, every player has to be somewhat optimistic about the possibility of overcoming inevitable setbacks. I think of ventures as roller coasters, not rocket ships.
Q: Any general advice to entrepreneurs seeking funding in the uncertain capital markets of today?
A: The best money comes from customers, not external investors. I think entrepreneurs need ideas that are so compelling they can get early money from customers. I also believe that great teams with great ideas can continue to access capital on quite attractive terms from outstanding investors. If the short term looks unsettled, that often means that focusing on the long term has a big potential payoff.
- 25 Jun 2024
- Research & Ideas
Rapport: The Hidden Advantage That Women Managers Bring to Teams
- 11 Jun 2024
- In Practice
The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024
How transparency sped innovation in a $13 billion wireless sector.
- 24 Jan 2024
Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago
- 27 Jun 2016
These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance
- Entrepreneurship
- Business Model
- Risk and Uncertainty
- Business Strategy
- Business Plan
- Forecasting and Prediction
Sign up for our weekly newsletter
![harvard business school business plan pdf Cart](https://hbr.org/resources/css/images/cart-icon.png)
- SUGGESTED TOPICS
- The Magazine
- Newsletters
- Managing Yourself
- Managing Teams
- Work-life Balance
- The Big Idea
- Data & Visuals
- Reading Lists
- Case Selections
- HBR Learning
- Topic Feeds
- Account Settings
- Email Preferences
Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything
- Steve Blank
![harvard business school business plan pdf harvard business school business plan pdf](https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2022/01/R1301C_HUGHES_R.png)
In the past few years, a new methodology for launching companies, called “the lean start-up,” has begun to replace the old regimen. Traditionally, a venture’s founders would write a business plan, complete with a five-year forecast, use it to raise money, and then go into “stealth mode” to develop their offerings, all without getting much feedback from the people they intended to sell to. Lean start-ups, in contrast, begin by searching for a business model. They test, revise, and discard hypotheses, continually gathering customer feedback and rapidly iterating on and reengineering their products. This strategy greatly reduces the chances that start-ups will spend a lot of time and money launching products that no one actually will pay for.
Blank, a consulting associate professor at Stanford, is one of the architects of the lean start-up movement and has seen this approach help businesses get off the ground quickly and successfully. He believes that if it’s widely adopted, it would reduce the incidence of start-up failure. In combination with other trends, such as open source software and the democratization of venture financing, it could ignite a new, more entrepreneurial economy.
There are numerous indicators that the approach is catching on: Business schools and universities are incorporating lean start-up principles into their curricula. Even more interesting, large companies like GE are applying them to internal innovation initiatives.
A faster, smarter methodology for launching companies may make business plans obsolete.
Launching a new enterprise—whether it’s a tech start-up, a small business, or an initiative within a large corporation—has always been a hit-or-miss proposition. According to the decades-old formula, you write a business plan, pitch it to investors, assemble a team, introduce a product, and start selling as hard as you can. And somewhere in this sequence of events, you’ll probably suffer a fatal setback. The odds are not with you: As new research by Harvard Business School’s Shikhar Ghosh shows, 75% of all start-ups fail.
- SB Steve Blank is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, a senior fellow at Columbia University, and a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been either a cofounder or an early employee at eight high-tech start-ups, and he helped start the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps and the Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Diplomacy programs. He blogs at www.steveblank.com .
Partner Center
![](http://nandemo.space/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
Elective Curriculum: Course Descriptions
Last Updated: 26 Jul 2024
By Course Title
View by Unit | View by Course Title | View by Faculty | Print View
# A B C D E F G I L M N O P R S T U V W
# | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
A | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Technology & Operations Management | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Accounting & Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | |
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
Organizational Behavior | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Organizational Behavior | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
B | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marketing | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | |
Technology & Operations Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Technology & Operations Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Technology & Operations Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Accounting & Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
General Management, Entrepreneurial Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
General Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
General Management, Marketing | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 |
C | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Business, Government & the International Economy, General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
General Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Accounting & Management, General Management, Organizational Behavior | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
General Management, Organizational Behavior | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Organizational Behavior | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Marketing | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Marketing | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
D | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Technology & Operations Management | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Finance | TBD | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | |
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Marketing | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 |
E | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, Finance | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 |
F | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marketing, General Management, Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, Finance | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Finance, Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Finance, Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
General Management, Technology & Operations Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management, Technology & Operations Management | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, Finance, General Management | , , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management, Entrepreneurial Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | |
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Finance, Entrepreneurial Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 |
G | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Accounting & Management, Technology & Operations Management | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
General Management, Business, Government & the International Economy | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
I | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Technology & Operations Management | , | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | |
General Management | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, General Management | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | , | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | |
Strategy, Marketing | , | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | |
Strategy | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | ||
Strategy | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
General Management, Technology & Operations Management | , , , | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | |
Marketing | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 |
L | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Technology & Operations Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Technology & Operations Management | , | January 2025 | J | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management, Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
General Management, Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Organizational Behavior | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
Strategy | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 |
M | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Management, Entrepreneurial Management, Technology & Operations Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Marketing | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Organizational Behavior | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | , , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Organizational Behavior, Strategy | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
Strategy | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
Strategy | Spring 2024 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
N | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | , , , , , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | , , , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
O | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Strategy | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 |
P | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Organizational Behavior | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Organizational Behavior | , | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | |
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
Marketing | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Finance | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 |
R | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Finance | , | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | |
Finance | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
General Management, Strategy, Accounting & Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Accounting & Management, Entrepreneurial Management, General Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
Business, Government & the International Economy | Spring 2025 | Q4 | 1.5 |
S | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | |
Business, Government & the International Economy | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | ||
General Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
Finance, Strategy | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Accounting & Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Strategy | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Strategy | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Strategy, Entrepreneurial Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | ||
Finance, Entrepreneurial Management | Fall 2024 | Q2 | 1.5 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management, Accounting & Management | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
T | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 | |
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
Technology & Operations Management | , | Spring 2025 | Q3 | 1.5 | |
Entrepreneurial Management, Organizational Behavior | Spring 2025 | Q3Q4 | 3.0 |
U | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Management, Strategy | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 | ||
General Management | Fall 2024 | Q1 | 1.5 |
V | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Entrepreneurial Management | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 |
W | Area | Faculty Name | Term | Quarter | Credits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets | , | Fall 2024 | Q1Q2 | 3.0 |
What We Do Blended Learning Solution Examples
Tailored leadership development strategies – designed for impact
The key to an effective learning solution is getting the details right. The examples on this page provide a glimpse of how our skilled learning design team brings together high-impact learning experiences to create leadership development programs that deliver on specific objectives. Remember, these are just examples—let us tailor a learning experience just for you.
![Learning and development professionals walking and talking. Learning and development professionals walking and talking.](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/top-img-1-11.png)
Example 1: Fostering a Culture of Inclusion
This example, for a targeted set of leaders in the organization, is designed to help leaders create inclusive cultures.
Learning Experience
Moderated discussion: Informal live discussion with senior executives on: company strategy for promoting Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging; DIB leadership; and plans for DIB improvements.
“Why Inclusive Leaders Are Good for Organizations, and How to Become One” “To Retain Employees, focus on Inclusion – Not Just Diversity” “Diversity Doesn’t Stick Without Inclusion?”
2-3 hours over 1 week
![harvard business school business plan pdf Diversity Image](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/DI-discussion-image_1.png)
Moderated discussion: Live conversation with Harvard thought leader
“Two Powerful Ways Managers Can Curb Implicit Bias” “Mindfulness Mitigates Biases You May Not Know You Have”
2 – 3 hours over 1 week
![harvard business school business plan pdf External Thought Leader Conversation](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/external-thought-leader-conversation.png)
Moderated debrief/discussion: Analysis and discussion of real-life specific business challenge though live moderated discussion and case debrief
HBS Case Study: “Managing Diversity and Inclusion at Yelp”
3 – 4 hours over 1 – 2 weeks
![harvard business school business plan pdf Leading Inclusion every level](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Leading-Inclusion-every-level.png)
Hands-on Exercise: Based on research that shows that 61% of all employees cover their identities in some way, crippling their professional performance, this exercise provides individual reflection and team-based discussion focused on how managers can create a workplace environment where all members of a team can bring their full selves to work.
“Help Your Employees be Themselves at Work” exercise
![harvard business school business plan pdf help-employees-be-themselves](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/help-employees-be-themselves.png)
Example 2: Leading through times of uncertainty
This example, for a targeted set of leaders in the organization, is designed to address an immediate challenge.
Moderated discussion: Informal, live discussion among senior executives exploring current company strategy, business needs and goals.
“Leading in Complex Times” “Six Simple Rules for Managing Complexity”
![harvard business school business plan pdf Senior leader discussion](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/senior-leader-discussion-image.png)
Moderated discussion: Live discussion with a Harvard Business School thought leader.
“The Ingredients of Great Leadership” “You Have to Lead from Everywhere”
Moderated debrief/discussion: Analyze and discuss a real-life business challenge through live, moderated case debrief and discussion.
HBS Case Study: “The 2010 Chilean Mine Rescue”
![harvard business school business plan pdf HBS Case Study](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/hbs-case-study.png)
Hands-on Exercise: Develop actionable strategies to prepare teams to respond proactively, practicing adaptability and agility.
Exercise: “Leadership in a VUCA World” Harvard Business Review Video: “The Role of Tomorrow’s Leaders”
![harvard business school business plan pdf Applied Learning Experience](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/applied-learning-experience-2.png)
Example 3: Fostering organizational agility
This example addresses needs at multiple levels of the organization, creating a learning cascade to reinforce key messages and principles across the enterprise.
![harvard business school business plan pdf](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/senior-leaders-1-2.png)
- 3-day HBS on-campus immersion
- 3 virtual modules
Content & Delivery
- Strategic Organizational Agility
- Innovation Culture
- Adaptive Leadership
Work Application
- 1 application/module
- Cascade key messages to midlevel
- Business impact project
![harvard business school business plan pdf](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/midlevel-leaders-1-2.png)
- Senior leader led kickoff
- 4 virtual modules
- Strategic Agility
- Collaborative Networks
- Personal Adaptability
- Agile Process & Innovation
- 2 applications/modules
- Cascade key messages to frontline leaders
![harvard business school business plan pdf](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/frontline-leaders-1-2.png)
- Midlevel leader led kickoff
- Agile Processes & Innovation
- Cascade key messages to individual contributors
![harvard business school business plan pdf](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/individual-contributors-1-2.png)
- Self-guided learning paths
- Manager-led discussions
Harvard ManageMentor®, Harvard ManageMentor® Spark™, LeadingEdge
- Project & Time Management
- Innovation and Change
- Customer Focus
- Application assignments
- Frontline leader-led discussions to cascade messaging, debrief self-guided learnings
- Specialists teach agile processes, reinforced by frontline leaders
Let’s meet your leadership challenges, together
Want to write your own success story? Let’s co-create a leadership development solution that meets your challenges and delivers real impact for your organization’s performance.
![harvard business school business plan pdf Leadership learning expert collaborating with client.](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/footer-bottom-1-1.jpg)
Benefit from world-class thought leadership and expertise
![harvard business school business plan pdf “Sticky notes” on glass with leadership expert writing on one.](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/footer-bottom-2-1.jpg)
Support your strategy with solutions tailored to your learners’ needs
![harvard business school business plan pdf Group of corporate leaders collaborating.](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/footer-bottom-3-1.jpg)
Develop a culture of continuous learning with on-demand solutions
![harvard business school business plan pdf Speech bubbles](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/icon_talkbubble.png)
Let’s talk
Change isn’t easy, but we can help. Together we’ll create informed and inspired leaders ready to shape the future of your business.
© 2024 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.
- Privacy Policy
- Copyright Information
- Terms of Use
- About Harvard Business Publishing
- Higher Education
- Harvard Business Review
- Harvard Business School
![harvard business school business plan pdf LinkedIn](https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/icon_nwsltr_darkmode_Linkedin.png)
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies and revised Privacy Policy .
Cookie and Privacy Settings
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.
![](http://nandemo.space/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Amy Gallo. People make business plans for all sorts of reasons — to attract funding, evaluate future growth, build partnerships, or guide development. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these ...
A growing number of annual business-plan contests are springing up across the United States and, increasingly, in other countries. Both graduate and undergraduate schools devote entire courses to ...
HBR Learning's online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Business Plan Development. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses ...
Review templates and tools for developing and pitching your business plan. Public Web sites: Small Business Administration. The "Small Business Planner" section has a specific page of resources to guide you when creating this essential component for getting your business started. Start-Up Resource Center. An Inc. Magazine Web site offering a ...
By: HBS Press, Harvard Business School Press. Every entrepreneur is encouraged to write a business plan; those who don't quickly learn that future operations can be derailed without a cohesive printed mission and that obtaining outside funding…. Length: 43 page (s) Publication Date: Oct 30, 2004. Discipline: Entrepreneurship.
of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been closely connected with more than 50 entrepreneurial ventures as an adviser, investor, or director. He teaches a second- year course at the Harvard Business School called "En- trepreneurial Finance," for which he has developed more
Developing a Social Enterprise Business Plan. February 11, 2015. Margot Dushin, HBS Social Enterprise Initiative Stephanie Dodson, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. Entrepreneurship is an activity or behavior as opposed to a person or an ideology •Entrepreneurship- The pursuit of opportunity regardless of the resources you currently ...
Updating a Classic: Writing a Great Business Plan. by Sean Silverthorne. Harvard Business School professor William A. Sahlman's article on how to write a great business plan is a Harvard Business Review classic, and has just been reissued in book form. We asked Sahlman what he would change if he wrote the article, now a decade old, today.
and grow the business, together with the interest, capabilities, and track record of likely investors. • Commitment: Level of commitment and involvement of the inventors. • Support: Presence of a true business champion for both the technology and the new venture. • Management: Experience, passion, and drive of the startup's executive team.
lace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. A senior lecturer of entrepre-neurial management at Harvard Business School, she is also the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, a podcast about portfolio careers produced by iHeartRadio, and co-author of New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs,
Abstract. The notion of business model has been used by strategy scholars to refer to "the logic of the firm, the way it operates and how it creates value for its stakeholders.". On the surface, this notion appears to be similar to that of strategy. We present a conceptual framework to separate and relate business model and strategy.
Discipline: Entrepreneurship. Source: Harvard Business Press Books. Product #: 13212-PDF-ENG. Length: 144 page (s) The PDF version of "Creating a Business Plan (Pocket Mentor)" is no longer available and has been replaced by "Creating Business Plans (20-Minute Mana.
Company and Industry Research: Strategies and Resources is a five-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Hiromi Kubo, business and economics librarian at California…. Length: 20 page (s) Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016. Discipline: General Management. Product #: BEP326-PDF-ENG.
Overcoming Challenges and Pitfalls. Challenge of consensus over clarity. Challenge of who provides input versus who decides. Preparing a long, ambitious, 5 year plan that sits on a shelf. Finding a balance between process and a final product. Communicating and executing the plan. Lack of alignment between mission, action, and finances.
The odds are not with you: As new research by Harvard Business School's Shikhar Ghosh shows, 75% of all start-ups fail. A version of this article appeared in the May 2013 issue of Harvard ...
Describes the various uses for a business plan and focuses on writing a business plan to attract financing for a new venture. Length: 7 page (s) Publication Date: Aug 23, 1988. Discipline: Entrepreneurship. Product #: 389020-PDF-ENG.
The School's inductive learning model goes beyond facts and theories—a process that teaches individuals not only how to manage organizations, but also how to continually grow and learn throughout life. ... forms the first year of study and establishes a common foundation in the fundamental practices of business including finance, marketing ...
This exercise and its accompanying handouts, designed to be used in courses for non-MBA audiences that explore aspects of entrepreneurship, guide students through the development of their very own business plan. From researching and deciding on a business concept, to developing prospective customer profiles and understanding target markets, to creating financial and operations projections ...
Field Course: The United States and China: Challenges for your Business. General Management. William Kirby. Spring. 2025. Q4. 1.5. Field Course: Value Creation in Small and Medium Firms.
This example, for a targeted set of leaders in the organization, is designed to address an immediate challenge. Informal, live discussion among senior executives exploring current company strategy, business needs and goals. Live discussion with a Harvard Business School thought leader. Analyze and discuss a real-life business challenge through ...
Going public. Source: Harvard Business School. Product #: 897101-PDF-ENG. Length: 30 page (s) A framework for assessing new business opportunities and the business plans used to describe them is developed. Useful for aspiring entrepreneurs in M.
By: HBS Press, Harvard Business School Press. Every entrepreneur is encouraged to write a business plan; those who don't quickly learn that future operations can be derailed without a cohesive printed mission and that obtaining outside funding…. Length: 43 page (s) Publication Date: Oct 30, 2004. Discipline: Entrepreneurship.